The Guide to the 2014 Tigers: How To Watch

Reasonable people can disagree about what is considered “good” and “right,” but at New English D we’ve cracked the code to the ultimate baseball watching experience. Obviously, your personal means and life situation will dictate some of how that plays out – for example, if you have a two month old child, you probably can’t be glued to your phone. This is why I advocate everyone having their children in November.

To that end, here’s what you’ll need to maximize your view experience.

Fox Sports Detroit or MLB.TV (depending on location)

Duh.

An auxiliary screen, such as a laptop or tablet

You’re going to want to check stats, look up random facts, and duck in on other games while the Tigers are on your main screen, so this is a must. I use a Chromebook, but I’m willing to accept that other devices will do the trick.

It’s hard for me to imagine watching baseball without Twitter anymore. Having your timeline full of analysis, jokes, and Tigers joy is a huge addition to the experience. Whether you’re debating strategy, RTing people going nuts after a home run, or obsessing over pitch count, this is the place to be.

Below is a list of people that readers recommended for a must follow list, with a few of my own thrown in for good measure. If you think someone is missing, post in the comments section, but submitting yourself is lame unless you’re really clever about it. This is a Tigers specific list, and I’m @NeilWeinberg44:

Tigers fans, I love you, but you tend to overreact to stuff. This might be just being a sports fan in general, I’m not plugged into many other fan bases, but losing a game isn’t the end of the world. Losing four straight games isn’t a huge deal. You can win if two of your players aren’t that good. Like 26 of the 30 bullpens in the league suck. I think this is a football mentality taking over baseball, but your team is going to lose 60 games every year. If your hockey team lost 60 games they’d be the worst. If your football team lost 60 games it would take them 7-10 years. You lose all the time in baseball, and that needs to be okay. For maximum enjoyment, you want to be ready. It’s okay to feel a crushing loss, but you can’t let it get you down on a regular basis.

It’s also important to let you family, friends, and coworkers know about your April to October schedule. Basically, tell them not to attempt to “invite you to things” or “talk to you about non-baseball related stuff” during this time period. There’s nothing worse than getting a “what are you doing?” text in the 6th inning of a game against a division rival. I mean seriously, how does that person even have your number?

Watching baseball should bring you joy more often than anything else. Sure, every now and then you’ll want to crawl into a hole and die, but if you’re not enjoying the season, reconsider your approach. Try switching on the radio feed instead of the television feed. Mute the Twitter people who are negative Nancy’s, or explain to your family that 7-10pm is not an appropriate time to “have non baseball conversations” or “need to go to the emergency room to get stitches.”

If you haven’t noticed, some of this is obvious, some is light-hearted, and some is a list of people you might want to follow on Twitter. Basically, this was a clever way to make a list post without you realizing it. Feel free to share your own game time traditions in the comments!